The System

Chapter 70

Jason's pov

I try to find him and I walk outside to see him punching the side of the building. His knuckles were bruised and bleeding. "Hey stop doing that!" I say, running over and grabbing his wrist. He was furious and pulled free. "Leave me alone!" He yells, shoving me backward. I'm caught off guard and trip and fall. "Brandon you gotta get your hand looked at." I say, standing back up. "Shut the hell up! Just go away!" He gripes, walking off. I quickly grab his shoulder. "Let's get your hand fixed up." He punches me in the gut but then I hold his hands back. "Stop acting like this. I'm only trying to help!" "I never asked for your help!! Fuck off!" He yells, struggling to pull free. I get him to the nurse on duty and she wraps his hands in bandages. "You're such a liar. You don't care about us." He growls. "Stop talking to him like that." The nurse snaps annoyed. "Yes I do. I don't know why you think I don't care." He stays quiet,  glaring at the ground. Then the dinner bell rang. We walk to the cafeteria. "So what're you interested in? Sports? Art? Music?" He glares at the ground and doesn't respond. I try to get him to talk. "Ya know I coulda been a baseball star but I didn't wanna go through another 4 years of school for it." He laughed. "Too stupid for school, huh?" Hm, maybe I should roll with this. "Yep I'm just your run of the mill redneck from Georgia. Stubborn as a mule and hated being told what to do." "I bet you barely passed school." He says, crossing his arms and laughing some more. I shrug. He isn't wrong. I wasn't great at school. "Well I certainly wasn't a straight A student if that's what you mean. I just had another passion. Music. So what about you?" He glares at me again and keeps walking. We get to the cafeteria and he almost runs into Ben on the way in. He ends up shoving him which of course annoys the crap out of me. I take a deep breath and help him up. "You okay?" "S-Sorry." He mumbles. "You don't need to apologize." I mutter annoyed. I gotta do something about that kid! There's a bunch of kids in the room and it takes me a while to locate him. He was sitting with some other rougher type kids that don't like me or Max. They all think we're just using them. I don't know why. I nervously grab some lunch and sit at their table. They were crowded around a phone watching something. "Hey guys, mind if I join ya." They all look annoyed. I don't know what to do. Maybe I could take them camping. We'll be able to have a little more one on one time. I barely see the phone and see it's some martial arts related stuff. "You a karate fan?" "Shut up dude. I don't know why you came over here." Brian said,  turning the phone off. Man I wish I could get through their tough shells. "I was wondering if anyone wanted to go camping this weekend. We'll go hunting and fishing. Hell maybe even encounter a bear?" I was surprised to see a couple of them interested. "What's in it for you?" Louis sneers,  glaring at me. "It isn't about getting anything. I just figured it  was something fun we could do together." I say, shrugging and opening a can of Sprite. "My dad used to take me camping before he ditched us." Brandon mutters, surprising me. "I'm not going to ditch you, Brandon." I say, resting a hand on his shoulder. He glares at me and shrugs my hand off before putting more salt on his fries. "Fine. We'll do it but just cause we want to get out of here and camping sounds fun. Not cause we like you." Brandon growls glaring at me. Well I'm going to change his mind this weekend if its the last thing I do.